This past weekend, Castle Hill hosted the huge Good Food Affare (sic). It was, what seemed to me to be an outdoor version of the Darling Harbour Good Food and Wine show (without the emphasis on International celebrity chefs), where growers, wholesalers and retailers met the public at a place that was merchandised to within an inch of itself.
Miellerie Unheated honey-with a lovely thick texture
Held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, by all reports it was well worth a visit. It looked to be a fairly big production with a long line of cars snaking down Carrington Road going into the grounds. There were several large sheds as well as three very long tents set up according to type of produce. I see a whole lot of new stalls, some of which I’ve never seen before.
Free Range Organic Eggs
Goat’s Cheese at Simon Johnson
The set up was pure country goodness with bales on hay, countrified decor and quaint sheds marked “cattle”.
Simon Johnson Soft Nougat coated in chocolate
Simple Syrup Co syrups-divine!
Tiki Syrup $15 each. Love the wax sealage
There are some smiling and welcoming stallholders showcasing their wares. One of my favourite stands was the Simple Syrup Co. stand where their syrup is made from Organic Mountain Paraguayan sugar and the flavours are steeped for 24 hours to ensure as deep a flavour as possible. The flavours include Tiki with Pineapple; Pomegranate and Tahitian Lime and Madagascan Vanilla Bean. Asking to choose a favourite is impossible, the above three that we tried were swoonworthy.
The Biscuit Tree’s Shortbread selection
Suze pulling faces and looking cold
We stop by Chocolate Suze’s The Biscuit Tree stand where a freezing cold Suze proudly tells us that they’ve completely sold out of biscotti. We collect our free gingerbread men and she gives us pointers on where and what is good to check out. The gingerbread men were fantastic, with tiny bits of real stem ginger rather than ground ginger powder). Arrgh and I left without buying some shortbread for my mother-it was too cold!
Some crispy bread leaves, similar to water crackers
Heirloom tomatoes in many varieties
Flowers gorgeously merchandised
Despite the sign, there is a woman with a clipboard taking bookings for Skye’s Cafe, the replica cafe of Skye Gyngell’s cafe at Petersham Nursery in Surrey, England. The lines look too long for the time that we have so we settle with some photos instead.
Don’t you know I just LOVE lighting fixtures? 
Cumberland ribs
Some of the stallholders aren’t as smooth as the operators that I’ve seen at regular weekly or monthly markets, some reluctantly proffering up samples to people, some samples covered so that one can’t feel invited to uncover. There’s even the Cumberland meats stand where a man very suspiciously asks my husband “What’s that for?” when he takes a picture of their goodies on offer. When he tells him about my food blog he clearly has no idea what a blog is and grunts. Pity about the paranoia as the ribs weren’t bad!
Pata Negra $35 for 100g
Edible flowers from Darling Mills
We stop by the Amour Cafe where we wait for quite a while for our coffees (sadly not great coffee after all that wait). The Citron tart is lovely and lemony and not too strongly so, so my husband eagerly devours this. The furniture is rather fetching though but the space was designed as open plan for a hot sweltering day whereas this weekend is a cold, chilly, windy one so we stop briefly for a break and then move onto warmer spaces.
Citron tart $5
Bales of hay as seating-with cushions of course!
And for me, it’s also about the lights…
And the cake stands!
Good Food Affare
Castle Hill Showground, entry via Doran Drive
off Carrington Road, Castle Hill
Held on the 21-st-23rd November 2008 9am-6pm
http://www.goodfoodaffare.com.au/
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20 Comments | Add your own
Hi Lorraine,
I’ve been to a ’show’ at the Castle Hill showgrounds before, you know.. pony rides, hot dog vans.. plants for sale etc. We were staying in Parklea at the time.
There were quite a few ‘pretty’ things here which made for nice photo’s. I really liked the cushions on the hay bales and the light fixtures!
I winced at some of the prices, like for the eggs..and the 100g of Iberico ham.
Liked the idea of buying a container of edible flowers. Do you remember the price of those?
Jealous!!! Heirloom tomatoes – double jealous! Suze’s biscotti – triple jealous!! xx
It looks very gentrified country – I love the cushions on the hay bales. Shame about the cold weather, though, it would have been nice to wander around in a wide brimmed hat, gathering eggs (oh, isn’t that what they do in the country?)
Thanks thanks thanks for sharing…I really wanted to go but it is too far and I have my exam on this Mon – Wed T_T
Looks really good, next year I will give it a try to go ^ ^
I wish I had known about earlier I would have gone but thanks for sharing it looks amazing. xx
I attended the Good Food Affare on saturday and whilst it was windy it was also sunny so it was a lovely day for it (much better than the sunday in sydney anyways). The best stalls for me were the organic chocolate stall especially the choc covered licorice; Pukara estate olive oils; Sanoma bakery- the olive sourdough is gorgeous!!!; and another stall (the name escapes me) where I picked up garlic aioli, carmelised onion, lemon butter and passionfruit butter; oh and the stall that sold gorgeous untoasted oats mixed with beautiful dried fruit and almonds- delightful!! I loved it but was glad to get home as I was weary from carrying my spoils and trying all the gorgeous food. Loved the scones from the Country Womens Association.
No “me wanty” this time?
We went to the show on Friday and luckily got there right at 9am. We really enjoyed it although I think the crowd numbers had many people surprised on Friday as a lot of things were sold out before 11.30am. We did a general look around planning to go back and buy pies, strawberries, peaches and nectrines but they had all sold out. The scones at the CWA had also sold out by 10.30 but their little cupcakes were great.
Suze mentioned you were coming. Too bad I missed you! It was so cold later in the afternoon that I had to leave.
Very disappointed with the “Cattle” shed
And the sold out biscotti! But I’ve been happily enjoying the gingerbread men and shortbread.
Thanks for the photos:) Somehow that seems much more fun than my airport oriented weekend lol.
Oohh you went Sat too? Must have just missed each other? It was soooo winddyyy and dusty >_<
Hee hee Suze’s face will be on sooo many blogs these next few days
I think we were slightly disappointed there were no food food stalls as we didn’t have lunch before we went. But those riibbsss, we missed out on them
and too bad the meat guy was rude.
Great photos though!
Hi Maria-Yes it was a very well merchandised event! Some items were very expensive indeed-like nectarines for $24.99/kg! I don’t remember seeing the price of the flowers, quite a few things didn’t have prices on them and I dislike having to ask for prices (it makes me feel obliged to buy).
Hi Christie-Haha well you could’ve been here!
Hi belle-Haha well I got the feeling it was perhaps what city people think of country
Hi Bean Sprout-You’re welcome!
It was far away and perhaps we wouldn’t have gone if we weren’t going to my friend’s house nearby afterwards.
Hi Tina-It kind of crept up on me too!
You’re welcome!
Hi sandra-Yes they were all great stalls, I’ve blogged on Sonoma bakery before and the olive bread is one of my favourite breads ever. There were lots of good things to buy indeed.
Hi Lilia-There was plenty of me wanty! Pretty much everything in the pictures
Hi Cass-You went at a good time I think as the weather was better. I think that the turnout surprised everyone!
Hi Karen-We were running really, really late and only got there at 3pm. Pity we missed you!
Hi Miss Honey-Aww no
But did you go anywhere interesting?
Hi FFichiban-I know, I was really cold and those huge gusts of dust were not great
She’ll have taken over the blogs! I agree, we came hungry and there wasn’t much to eat at all by then as everything had sold out-although it was 3pm, they were still “open” for 3 hours. That’s why were we glad for the samples that we could find (the Bega cheese triangles were fantastic!).
Gorgeous photos! This looks like it was a fun event, despite the chilly weather. All this food is mkaing me hungry, even if it is bedtime!
lol at ffichiban hehe spreading the love
thanks for coming dude! it did get pretty horrible towards the end of the day i had to wear so many jumpers!
fabulous!
ahhhhh – i wish this were my local saturday market.
Hi there, loved the blog, but must say I didn’t love the day.Skye’s cafe looked heavenly, but the lack of food and coffee made the day a bit of bummer. As they had organised Rotary to do the car park, and I hope keep the proceeds, they should have asked the Lions to set up heaps of barbeques. We arrived at 10 on Friday morning, after and hour and a half drive, and many stallholders had sold out, some hadn’t even fronted.We left an hour later to find some lunch. So I was generally disappointed and think that your local growers market is probably more worth while.
Hi Cakelaw-It was fun and the weather should have behaved itself, after all we are in the last Spring week before Summer!
Hi chocolatesuze-glad I came, I wish I had remembered to buy the shortbread. Cold and hungry=silly behaviour
Hi the projectivist-That would be great if it was there every week!
Hi Sally-I would’ve been really disappointed if I had gotten there at 10 to find that everything had sold out. I think some major underplanning must have happened! Even when we got there at 3pm on the Saturday heaps of places had sold out and they still had Sunday to go. Hopefully next year’s projections will be more accurate now that they know what kind of crowd to expect. And I totally agree about your barbecue idea!
ooh I love that cake stand
Hi Y-Me too, I wanted it so much! I had to remove myself from there!
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[...] food we’d be having. Held at Centennial Park it was billed as a bit of a food market a la Castle Hill’s Food Affare and a bit of a food festival a la the SMH Good Food Fair. We were being joined by Christie and her [...]
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